Harvest Moon: The Treasure Hunt
by Juxapose4ever
Summary: A request written in 2008. The main Character from Save the Homeland moves to Forget-Me-Not Valley, and works for the excavation team. There he will discover an unknown treasure, and maybe a bit of romance.


On an early Spring day in a distant village known as Forget-Me-Not Valley, arrives a newcomer. His name is Hiro, age 21. This man is a young traveler who came a long way to take up a job in this small village. He once used to work in his grandfather's farm, but he now has taken a job as a miner in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

He still has his old farming clothes from his old job. Blue heavy duty jeans with leather buckled straps that go over his shoulders, a plain white shirt with rolled up sleeves, leather boots that reaches halfway to his knees, a bandanna around his neck, a blue hat turned backwards, and a pair of red and black gloves. Even though his attire is meant for farming, it does serve very well for his new job as well. Even though it was never recommended, He keeps his hair long because he likes it too much to cut it.

Hiro is amazed at how great the scenery looks from the entrance of the village. Unlike the village where he used to live in, there are a lot more trees, wild flowers, and open fields in the vast open valley. The ocean view is nicer as well, and the buildings seem to be more old fashioned traditional. With so much open space, the cool Spring air just breezes just flows freely everywhere.

Rather than sitting around to appreciate the abundance of nature, he needs to arrive at the dig site as soon as possible. Because he had gotten lost a couple of times while traveling between villages, he is about a day late. He needs to hurry and find the place before his job offer is given to someone else.

He finds a farm close by. He stops by to ask for directions, and a kind young girl who lives at the farm points north up the river. After thanking her for her help, he heads up the river and finds himself at the dig site. He was expecting the site to have large machinery and a quarry. But all he finds is a hole on the side of the mountain, and a tent. He feels disappointed at the simplicity, but a job is a job to him.

He sets his bags down on the ground, and checks the tent for anyone inside. Nobody is inside the tent, but he is amazed at how modern the interior of the tent is. From the outside, it doesn't look anything special, but from the inside it looks like a small apartment. A small kitchenette in the corner, two futons on each side, a small television set, and a library of books in the back. Almost like if whoever lives there must have been in the valley for years.

The next place he searches is inside the mines. The entrance is lit, so he knows someone must be inside. Even though he has some mining experience, he only dug up ores and other minerals from the field of his grandfather's farm. A dark cave in the middle of the valley is something new to him, and he feels excited yet nervous at the same time. Regardless on how he feels, he walks inside anyway to greet his new co-workers.

Inside the mines, he finds two people working hard searching through the rough dirt. A man who appears to be around his mid-40's, and a fairly attractive woman who looks somewhat older than Hiro. He finds the middle aged man to be kind of odd. First thing he notices is his clothes, for working on the mines he wears very heavy clothing. His pants and boots are fine, but his long sleeve shirt and vest seems unnecessary for work in the mines. Even in the Spring month, it'll get a bit too warm and humid to work. Around his neck, he wears some type of necklace made of bones and amber ores.

The young woman is dressed a bit lighter than the other person. A green tank-top that seems very comfortable for the warm interior of a cave. Fairly high shorts, but boots that cover most of her legs. He finds her hair color to be quite interesting, a honey golden brunette that is almost close to blond. Like Hiro, she keeps her hair long, plus her bangs surround her cheeks that makes it seem like if it's trying to draw everyones attention to her face. Her eyes have a very rare amethyst color to them which makes her look more interesting.

Since there are two futons in the tent, he feels that they must be a couple. It doesn't take him long to let out a fake cough to get their attention. Seeing that he is a new face, they both are shocked to see him so suddenly. They pat their hands to get the excess dirt off, and they approach the young man to see what he needs.

**"Hello there, how can I help you?"** asked the middle aged man.

Hiro pulls out a flier from his pocket, and presents it to him. **"I came for the job."** he said in a casual tone.

The man in the mines examines the flier that Hiro brought with him. He is amazed that one of the fliers that he sent out ever came back to him. **"Well, we've been expecting you. Actually we thought you were going to arrive yesterday, but it's better late than never."** He then extends his hand out to Hiro and greets, **"My name is Carter, I am an archaeologist."**

Hiro shakes his hand and says, **"My name is Hiro, I used to work in a farm. But I have done some treasure hunting while I was living in the farm."**

The young woman approaches Hiro and greets, **"My name is Flora, I am Carter's assistant. It's a pleasure to meet you."**

After everyone has greeted one another, Carter pats Hiro on the back and says,**"Well, since you'll be working with us from now on, I say that we should get to know one another better. Lets take the afternoon off, and have some dinner together!"**

Flora smiles seeing that this may be a good excuse to cook. So she raises her hand and says, **"Sounds like a good idea. I'll go to the farm, and get some vegetables to make some curry, and-"**

"Um, no!" interrupted Carter in a rude fashion. **"Hiro is new to the valley, the last thing he needs is a taste of your cooking. We are going to the Inn for dinner."**

Carter then drags Hiro out of the cave, and heads to the Inn. He did notice on the way there that Flora was a bit upset with Carter. Carter himself didn't seem to notice her pouting, so Hiro feels that this is a common occurrence between them.

In the Inn which was close to another farm, Carter begins his great speech about his life story and the reason why he is in the valley. He mentions that the mines that they met has been recently discovered a couple of years ago, and they were sent to find anything inside. The reason that they needed extra help was because the mine cave is much larger and deeper than they originally believed. The cave is too big for them to explore alone, so they needed an extra hand.

Carter did all the talking. Hiro sat down eating barely listening to Carter. Instead, he was secretly paying more attention to Flora who is sitting across from him on the table. Like Hiro, she remains quiet through the entire meal. She still appears annoyed that Carter had embarrassed her in front of Hiro, and he doesn't even care to apologize yet. They made eye contact a few times, but they always look away from each other.

After dinner, Hiro spent the evening setting up his tent next to Carter and Flora's tent. As he is trying his best to work on his tent, he could hear Carter and Flora argue inside their tent. Since they live in the same tent and argue, Hiro believes that they are a couple.

It takes him about an hour to finally get his tent set up, but Carter and Flora had already stopped arguing by then. He knows that he starts his job early in the morning, so he falls asleep quickly.

Early the next morning, Carter brings Hiro into the cave where he is taken into another opening inside the cave. The main area where Carter and Flora works is already dark and huge. Hiro had no idea that he will be working inside the deeper and darker area of the cave.

**"Well, you'll be working here."** said Carter. **"About a week ago, one of the farmers knocked down this wall to reveal this part of the mines. Unlike the main area, we feel that this part of the cave is a shaft that goes down several floors. We have no idea how deep it goes, or what is the purpose of this mine shaft. And more importantly, why was this place sealed off from the rest of the cave. It is your job to find any clues that lead to the answers to these questions, and bring them to me."**

Hiro looks into the dark entrance of the mines nervously and says, **"I'm going to be working in there by myself?"**

"Of course!" cheered Carter. **"You are a brave looking young man, I'm sure you can handle it. Me and Flora still have a lot of work to do up here, so we'll leave the mine shaft to you. If you find any ores or other valuables, you can keep them and sell for money. But any antiques or relics must be presented to me first."**

Hiro had second thought about his job. But he is not the type of person who would skip out on a job once he accepts it. So he nods, and takes his tools that he brought with him out of his rucksack. He has a hoe that he used while in the farm, and he also bought a hammer before arriving in the valley. He had a feeling that he will be dealing with large rocks that needed to be smashed, so he feels fortunate that he bought it.

The first floor was relatively small compared to the main room. He smashed all of the rocks, but doesn't find anything more than junk ore. After clearing the room, he starts to dig around in the dirt. It doesn't take him long before discovering a hidden hole in the room. He takes a peek in with a lantern, and sees that in the room below is larger than the one he is in. Seeing that the rooms get larger as he goes deeper into the mines, he knows that he has a lot of work ahead of him.

Later that afternoon, Hiro finally leaves the mines, and shows Carter what he found. He found many types of ores, crystals, and gems, bit nothing of importance to an archaeologist. Carter allowed him to keep all of the stuff Hiro found, and sent him off to relax for the next day. Carter also reminded Hiro that a merchant named Van comes every day that ends in 3 or 8 to buy anything that Hiro might find in the mines.

Later that night, Hiro lays on his sleeping bag, and looks up at the inside of the tent. There is nothing interesting about the inside of the tent, but he does take the time to think about things while his mind is at ease. The job isn't that hard, and the worst thing he encounters is a couple of bugs in the cave. But even so, he finds himself feeling that he might not have made the right choice of coming to the valley.

Sometime later, Hiro hears someone whispering his name from outside the tent. He sits up, and tells the person outside to come inside the tent. Flora then enters the tent carrying two medium sized pots with her. He is surprised to see her so suddenly, especially so late at night.

**"Flora! I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you. What can I do for you?"** asked Hiro.

**"Well, I made some dinner, and I thought that you might be hungry. Would you like some curry?"**

Hiro was feeling a bit hungry, so he accepted her offer. She sat next to him, and served some rice with a decent portion of curry on top. Hiro gladly accepts the curry rice, and takes a bite. Hiro doesn't notice that Flora was a bit nervous about how the curry came out, but since Hiro doesn't look dissatisfied, she feels a bit relieved.

She is still curious about how it came out, so she asks, **"So, how is it?"**

"Not bad, it's actually pretty good." he answered. This makes Flora feel happy to see that someone actually praised her cooking.

She then fills her plate, and started eating with him. As she eats, she says, **"If you want seconds, you're more than welcome to it. I made way too much for myself."**

At that moment, Hiro noticed that the pot is filled to the top with the exception of the shares that he and Flora are eating. By the looks of the pot, Carter did no have any curry rice yet. So Hiro asks, "Isn't Carter going to have some curry?"

Flora shakes her head no and answers, **"No, he refuses to eat my curry, or anything I make."**

"Really? Why is that?" asked Hiro.

She sighs and says, **"Well, It's kind of my fault. About a year ago, I decided to make some curry with mushrooms. I'm not the best cook in the world, so I made a little mistake. I used some poisonous mushrooms with the curry, and he got really sick. Ever since then, he refuses to eat anything I cook."**

Hiro suddenly laughs at Flora's mistake. Since he has picked mushrooms before, he can easily tell the difference between poisonous and edible mushrooms. Flora didn't feel offended when Hiro laughed, she actually started to laugh along with him. After they had calmed down, the continued to eat until they got full. There is a lot of curry and rice left over, but they didn't care about that. Flora is in no rush to leave Hiro's tent, so he stayed there to ask some questions.

**"So Hiro, tell me. Why did you come to the valley? You didn't like farming anymore?"**

Hiro thought about his answer for a moment before answering, **"No, actually, I enjoyed working in my grandfather's farm very much. But I decided to leave so I can find a home I guess. That's all."**

Flora wasn't buying his story at all. If a home is all he was looking for, he would have just remained at the farm that he used to live in. While he was off guard, Flora's attention was caught on one of Hiro's duffel bags full of his possessions. There is a small picture frame sticking out of it with Hiro standing with someone else in it. She quickly snatches it while Hiro was looking away.

Hiro felt embarrassed as soon as he noticed that Flora found his picture. In the photograph held Hiro's secret of why did he really leave the farm. In the photo, he is standing in front of a mansion with a very attractive younger girl with short jet black hair, and a green dress. Judging by her appearance, she seems to be around 17-19 years old. They are holding what seems to be a small chest that they dug up together.

**"Who is this girl? She's pretty."** asked Flora.

Hiro takes the photo back and says, **"Her name is Dia, an old friend of mine. She used to live in the same village that I came from. We both discovered a rare treasure, some seeds that grow rare and highly nutritious fruit. It's a long and complex story, but after we discovered that treasure, we were able to save that village from being torn down."**

Flora notices a sad look on Hiro's face as he looks at the picture. She can tell that something happened that has made him feel this way, and possibly leave his home to find a new one. Curious to know what happened, she asks, **"So, was she a girlfriend or something?"**

"No. But I do admit that I did have a crush on her. At first, it was hard getting along with her. She was very antisocial, and rarely spoke to anyone. But in order to save the village and our home, we had to work together. I learned a lot of things about her, and I became very fond of her. After we found the treasure, I wanted to ask her to go out with me. But then her father came to the village to get her. About a week later, I found out that she got engaged."

**"Oh, I see. Sorry to hear that."** said Flora.

**"It's not your fault. I should have known that something like this would happen. After all, she does come from a different world than I do. She was a member of a famous and wealthy family, while I was just a simple farmer. There was no way that something could have happened between us, but I still wanted to try. I was just being foolish now that I think about it."**

At that moment, Flora started to feel sad for him. She wants to tell him that it's was not his fault or something like that, but she knows that she's not having any more luck with relationships as he did. Since Hiro has told her his personal side of his story, he takes this chance to hear hers.

**"So, do you get along well with Carter?"** he asked. He knew the answer already, but he wants to hear it come from her anyway.

Flora takes a deep stressful breath before answering him. **"Not really. Carter is far more interested to find a new discovery to notice me at all. Sometimes I wonder if he would even notice if I just vanished one day."**

"Aren't you two married, or at least dating? I mean, you two do live together in a tent after all."

Flora's face turned red in embarrassment from Hiro's sudden question. **"Um, no. We did go to school together, but we are just partners in archeology, that's all."** She then takes a deep breath and stared at the ground for a moment. She then confesses, **"But don't get me wrong, I guess that we should be by now. We have been together since college, and I have always admired him since we met. But he works a bit too hard to even notice any feelings I have for him. I sometimes feel that the relationship between us will never change as colleges."**

"I see, sorry I asked."

"It's fine. I guess in some strange way, we're alike." They then looked at one another in the eyes, and giggled a bit. before long, Flora had to return to her tent, but she felt so much better talking to Hiro. Even though most of their conversation were very personal, Flora doesn't remember when was the last time she had a conversation like this with Carter, assuming they ever did.

Time passed, and Hiro continues to work his way down in the mines during the day, and have interesting conversations with Flora at night. Carter hardly notices that Flora would leave at night to spend time with Hiro. When he does, he just assumes that they are just discussing any findings in the mines.

It is now the middle of Summer, and Hiro has reached the 200th floor of the mines. Even though he has yet to find anything that can aid Carter's research, just knowing that the mines had at least 200 floors is an impressive discovery. A mine shaft in a cave is nothing impressive, but this is the first known mine that was dug so deep. Carter feels that there is another reason as to why the mines were built. But he still sends Hiro to continue to dig down deeper and deeper into the mines alone.

On the 201st floor of the mines, Hiro digs through the dirt looking for any more hidden holes leading deeper into the mines. But as he digs, his hoe hits something unusual in the dirt. Even though he has found many ores, gems, and crystals in the mines, he usually only finds them in the rocks, not in the dirt. The object Hiro hit felt hard as stone, yet smooth as marble. He uses his hands to clear away the dirt on the object. Buried not too deep in the dirt, he finds some sort of tablet with ancient writing on it.

The tablet is not too big, so he is able to pull it out of the ground. Happy to see that he has finally found something, he rushes out of the mines to report what he finds. But as he is leaving, he felt something unusual in the air. He has the feeling that something or someone is watching him, and the air feels colder than usual. He can also hear something unusual, almost like a laugh or a cry.

Hiro isn't very superstitious, so he ignores the unusual things he felt in the mines and climbs out. He is in pretty deep, so it takes him a while to get out. As soon as he reaches the top floor, he yells to get Carter's attention. Carter and Flora rushes into the mines to see what Hiro wants. There, he presents the tablet that he found in the mines.

**"Excellent work Hiro!"** yelled Carter upon receiving the tablet. Cater and Flora then examines the tablet closely, and notices something very familiar about it. **"Check this out! I've seen these characters before!"**

**"They're the same characters on that sword we found some time ago!"** yelled Flora in a shocked expression.

**"Sword, what sword?"** asked Hiro. Rather than explaining the whole thing to Hiro, they decide to show him instead. They take the tablet back to Carter and Flora's tent where they search for the sword that they speak of. Inside a chest, Carter pulls out an item wrapped in a silk blanket. He removes the blanket to reveal a white shining sword with a golden hilt. There are characters similar to the ones on the tablet engraved on the blade.

**"When did you find this?"** asked Hiro.

**"We found it not too long before we hired you. It's an ancient treasure that we kept a secret from the rest of the valley. But since you helped us find a new piece of the puzzle, I've decided to show you what we've found." **answered Carter.

**"What does this mean?"** Hiro continued to ask.

**"Not really sure. But I bet that the sword and the tablet are in some way related somehow."** Carter then touches the engraved characters on the sword and continues, **"Because the sword has so few characters, I was never able to translate the writing. But now with this tablet in our possession, I think I an make something out."**

"Really? How long till you can make something out?"

"Tomorrow probably. I will not be able to translate the whole thing, but I may just decipher enough to know what happened in this cave a long time ago." said Carter still caressing the sword.

At this point, Hiro understands what Flora meant that Carter cares for his work more than anything. Ever since he came to the valley to work for Carter and Flora, he noticed that Carter takes more interest in his artifacts than he does anything else, even Flora. Even though he is happy that he found something important, he cannot help but to feel sorry for Flora. She's a very attractive and hard working woman, he feels that she deserves better than to be ignored by the man she admires.

That night, Hiro goes to his tent to get ready for the next day. But before he even gets the chance to sleep, Flora drops by with some wine she bought. So rather than sleeping, he spends the night celebrating with Flora. He doesn't mind at all, he does like spending his nights with her anyway.

As they drink, Flora stops to take a moment to raise her cup in the air and say,**"Cheers! To your first discovery in Forget-Me-Not Valley!"** They make a toast, and took another long drink. They both start to feel a little bit intoxicated, so they decide to slow down and talk.

**"So Hiro, once we discover the secret to the ruins, what will you do then?" **asked Flora unexpectedly.

Hiro is shocked at her question. He has been living in the valley for a short time, but he never made any plans for what he wants to do next. He felt that the job in the valley will never end, so he could stay by Flora's side forever. But now that he found a valuable clue to the project, he may not be able to stay much longer. He knows that after the job is done, Carter and Flora will leave to the next dig site far away.

**"I don't know. I guess I'll find another job, and go where the wind takes me. After all, I am looking for a place to call home. Don't get me wrong, I do like Forget-Me-Not Valley, But I can't see me living here."** answered Hiro.

Flora then places her hand on Hiro's and says, **"Why don't you come with us? I'm sure if you do a good job with Carter, he can recommend you a job with us, and we can travel together! What do you say?"**

Hiro is surprised to hear those words come from Flora so suddenly. He looks at her deep in her light violet eyes to see how serious she was about him traveling with her. He is tempted to kiss her, and steal her away from Carter. But he is not completely sure how she feels about him. Does she like him, or does she see him as a friend. Remembering how he misunderstood Dia's feelings, he doesn't want to make the same mistake again.

So he takes a deep breath and asks, **"What about Carter? Are you sure he doesn't mind me coming along? And what about your feelings for him?"**

Flora stands up and says, **"Don't worry so much about that. Carter only cares about making new discoveries. As long as he feels that you can help him make some new discoveries, he won't care."** She then takes a look at her watch and says, **"It's getting late, I'm going to go to bed now. Think about my offer for a while. . . Well then, good night."**

**"See you tomorrow."** replied Hiro. Then she went back to her tent where she can sleep. Hiro lays down on his sleeping bag, and falls asleep as well. He almost regrets not taking his chances and kiss Flora when he had the chance. But he also feels that doing something reckless would just jeopardize whatever relationship he currently has with her.

The next day, Hiro enters the tent where he finds Carter examining the tablet he found the day before. It doesn't take long before Carter notices him, and calls him over. Hiro sits down close by to see what interesting facts Carter might have learned while working on the tablet overnight.

**"Well, I have learned quite a bit from the tablet you brought me."** said Carter. **"I couldn't decipher much of the tablet, but I have made a very interesting discovery."**

"What is it?" asked Hiro curiously.

**"I know it sound a bit odd, but it looks like a spell is written on this tablet."**Hearing that the tablet contains a spell of some sort really intrigues Hiro. **"Not just any spell, but a spell that is used to seal in or trap something in that mine. In fact, I don't think that it's a mine at all, but rather a prison."**

"A prison? For what reason?" asked Hiro in a shocking tone.

**"I am not sure, but something else is bothering me. You see, the tablet was found inside the mines. Whatever that was sealed inside the mines was not being trapped inside. But rather it seems like if someone was trying to keep others from coming inside!"**

Remembering that odd feeling he got from the mines after he picked up the tablet, he got the odd feeling that something might have been in the mines after all. For just a moment, he got the feeling that something scary might be lurking in those mines now. But it was only a passing thought, Hiro doesn't believe in spirits, ghosts, or anything supernatural like that.

Hiro takes a deep breath and asks Carter, **"So, what are we going to do now?"**

"I have to stay up here and type up a report on our findings." answered Carter. **"I need you to return to the mines, and find more clues that will help in our discovery. Just because you found something, that doesn't mean we have enough to retell history in our own words."**

**"I see."** replied Hiro. **"But I'm expected to go all the way down there by myself? I know it's a bit late to worry about this, but what if the mines collapsed? I might get trapped two hundred floors underground. Or worse, I might get killed!"**

"It's all part of the job of being an archaeologist." said Carter casually. **"We all risk our necks every day in many dig sites. But the treasure we discover makes all that risk well worth the effort."**

Hiro feels annoyed that he said that so bluntly and carefree. By now, he is starting to have a better grasp on why Flora keeps saying that he cares about his research more than anything else. But he did volunteer for this job, so he needs to see it through to the end.

Just as Carter asked, Hiro returns to the mines where he begins his descent to the 201st floor where he left off. It takes him hours to return, but he arrives at the bottom floor unharmed. He takes a deep breath in the dark room, but thoughts about what Carter told him still flood his mind. If the mines had been used to imprison someone inside, he feels that there is a small chance that a vengeful spirit may be living in the cave. Even if he doesn't believe in ghosts, he still doesn't like taking chances.

**"Hi there!"** yelled a female voice. This causes Hiro to jump, panic and scream a bit. He points the lantern at the source of the voice, but he feels relieved as soon as he saw Flora's face.** "Did I scare you?" **she asked.

**"Flora, what are you doing down here? I'm not sure if it's safe to be down here, so you should go back up!"** said Hiro worried about Flora's safety.

She shakes her head no and says, **"I don't think so. I think that we're about to make the discovery of the year, and I want us to find it together."** She then turns around and pouts while saying, **"Of course, if you don't like having me around, I'll go back up. But I thought you'd be happy to have me work with you."**

**"Don't misunderstand!"** said Hiro. **"I really do like having you around, but we are just so deep in the mines! Anything could happen down here, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you."**

Flora giggles a bit and responds, **"I'm glad that you're worried about me."** She then crosses her arms and continues, **"But to be honest, I'm a little bit worried about you. I know how dangerous going this far down can be, and I'm getting upset that Carter is sending you down her all by yourself. Just let me come along."**

Hiro knows that he will not win this argument. So he gives in and says, **"Okay, you can come. If anything does happen down here, I'll do my best to protect you!"**

After sighing with relief, Flora started collecting her things that she brought for the journey to what seems to be the center of the earth. But as she is gathering her things, Hiro notices that she has brought something very interesting with her. She took the sword that Carter showed him yesterday with her.

**"Flora, why did you bring that thing?"** asked Hiro.

**"Oh this?"** asked Flora while carrying the sword. **"I brought this along because I think this is the key to our greatest discovery."**

"How so?"

"You see, a lot of the writings engraved in this sword matches the tablet you brought up. If what I assume is correct, the tablet and the sword are linked somehow. But I also feel that there is a third item in this mine that have the same ancient writing as the sword and the tablet. Once we find it and put the pieces together, we have our discovery."

"I see." replied Hiro. They then start to dig up the mines and smash up any large stones in their way. As they continue to dig, Hiro notices that for a woman, Flora is quite strong. She can carry and use tools just as effectively as any man. Plus she works just as hard as Hiro does, but she doesn't get as tired. He doesn't know why, but he admires this new side of her that he just noticed.

Several floors down, Hiro and Flora takes a small break to have something to eat. As they eat, Flora takes advantage of the situation to ask, **"Hey Hiro. Have you thought about what I asked last night? You know, about join our team."**

Hiro pauses for a moment. He knows that he has thought about it very hard, but he is still not completely sure of what he wants to do. So he answers, **"I have. But I still don't have a solid decision on what I want to do after this. You see, I like being with you and everything, but what you're asking me to do is to travel around the world. I kind of wanted to have a place I ca call home. I know that the whole world is your home. But what we want may be a bit different. So, I don't know what I want to do. I want to stay with you, but I don't want to travel around the world either. I still need a bit more time to decide."**

"It's okay, I'm sure everything will work out in the end." said Flora full of confidence. She then stands up and says, **"Well, break is now over. Lets get back to work!"**

Hiro smiles at how much energy Flora has. And so he stands up and continues to dig deeper into the mines. After digging for several hours, they finally arrive at a floor that doesn't have anymore holes that lead deeper into the mines. They checked their records, and learns that they are in the 255th floor of the mines. In that floor, there are no large stones like the other 254 floors above.

They take a quick look through the room, and find nothing. No chest or great treasure that they expected to find in the bottom floor. Disappointed that they didn't find anything, they pack their bags, and get ready to leave. But as Flora picks up the lantern, she finds something very unusual. On the southern wall, she notices that there is some writing engraved in the same language as the sword and the tablet.

She calls Hiro over and shows him the engraved writing. Flora then presses her ear against the wall, and begins to knock on it. She then says, **"I think there's a room behind this wall. If we can get inside, I think we'll find our treasure that we've been looking for."**

**"Stand back!"** yelled Hiro as he grabs his hammer that he normally uses for smashing stones. If the hammer can smash stones, he feels that he can use it to smash through the wall. Flora stands clearly away watching Hiro prepare himself to hit the wall with his hammer.

But the wall is not going to collapse that easily. Hiro hits the wall with all his might, but something unusual happens. Just before the hammer touches the wall, a powerful energy pushes back sending Hiro and the hammer flying backwards across the room.

Flora runs to his aid and yells, **"Hiro, are you Okay?!"**

Hiro stands up heavily and says, **"I'm okay, but something pushed me away. That wall must be protected with some type of magic!"**

**"Magic?!" **asked Flora. She then runs over to the wall with the sword in her arms. Remembering the engraving in the tablet, she compares it to the engraving on the wall. She then takes a long look at the sword, and saw a connection. She then turns back and says, **"Hiro, I think I know how to get through."**

Hiro walks towards flora carefully. Even though he is not hurt by the barrier on the wall, he doesn't want to take any chances. But at least he is starting to believe in strange things like magic. **"What did you find?"** he asked Flora.

Flora points at the engraving on the wall and says, **"Look at this. Carter mentioned earlier that the tablet you found has some sort of spell written on it. I spent a lot of time studying that tablet, but I couldn't decipher it either. But I did memorize the writing on it as I studied it. Now, if that tablet had a spell, then this wall must be what the spell was for!"**

Hiro is confused at what Flora is telling him. So he asks, **"Okay, but how will that help us get in?"**

"Don't you get it? Something has been sealed away inside the room beyond the wall. The spell is the lock that keep the room closed. So there has to be a key that will unlock the room." She then shows him the sword and continues, **"I think that this sword is the key to opening this door."**

Everything is starting to make sense to Hiro. He grabs the sword by the hilt, and carries it toward the wall with the engraving. He is not sure if what he is going to do is going to work, but he has to try. He draws the blade in his hands, and thrusts through the solid rock that makes up the wall.

After the blade passes through the stone wall, it starts to dissolve into sand. Now that the passage to the other room is open, Hiro and Flora prepares themselves to make history. The passage is quite short only measuring about 10 feet in length. On the other end of the passage is a large room with lots of interesting items.

The room has a large bed in the center that looks very old, at least a few hundred years old. Around the room are lots of ancient pottery and relics that have unusual patterns that Flora has never seen before. There is no gold or gems in the room, but they did find many valuable objects that are priceless.

Excited to find the room, they split up and start to look around for anything else they could use to identify what was the room was used for, and why was it sealed using magic. Flora then walks toward the southern right corner of the room to see what is hidden there. What she finds shocks her and causes her to scream and jump back.

Hiro Runs to Flora to check if she is Okay. She's fine, but she has a horrified look on her face. **"What happened?"** asked Hiro.

**"Hiro, there's someone else in this room!"** Flora yelled in a panic. Curious to know what she was talking about, he picks up the lantern, and walks towards the corner that Flora walked up to earlier. He was expecting to find some sort of statue that looks like a person, or the remains of a human that once lived in the room. But he never expected to find another living and breathing person in the room.

Hiro's eyes widen as he looks at another girl standing in the corner of the room. She is frightened by the sudden collapse of the wall that kept her in the room, and the appearance of the two strangers. But after seeing Hiro's face, she starts to calm herself.

She is quite an unusual girl with long jet black hair that reaches all the way to the ground. In fact, her hair must be at least 2 feet longer than she is tall. She is wearing some sort of ancient robe yellow in color, but has a red and blue patterns around the end of the sleeves and around the borders. A head band with a matching blue and red pattern, and a leather necklace that has a single piece of Lapiz Lazuli tied to it. Even though she clearly has been living in the mines for a long time, she looks remarkably young at 18-20 years old. She is very attractive with snow light fair skin and deep dark eyes. No facial hair or imperfections that may have come from living in the room without some sort of washroom.

Even though Hiro is shocked to see such a beautiful and young girl in the bottom of the mines, he feels that she is no threat of any kind. So he takes a deep breath and says, **"Hi there, who may you be?"**

"My name. . . Is Keria." They both are shocked to hear her speak, especially English. Based on the ancient writing that they found in the cave, they were expecting her to speak in a forgotten language. But now that they see that she can speak the same language as they can, they know that there is far more to the story than they ever assumed.

After everyone has calmed down, Keria returns to her bed in the center of the room. Hiro and Flora introduced themselves, and reassured her that they are no threat of any kind to her. They explain that they are archaeologists who work by discovering ancient secrets of the earth. Keria is relieved to know that she is not in danger.

**"So Keria, why are you down here?"** asked Hiro. There are a lot of questions that he wants to ask - Like: How is she alive after so many years of being in the bottom of the mines? How does she look so young after so much time has passed? And who is she? But the first thing he wants to start with is why is she down in the mines in the first place.

Keria has a hard time answering Hiro. It has been a very long time since she has been down there, and most of what she remembers about her past are painful. But looking into Hiro's gentle face gives her enough courage to answer his question.

**"Well, you see. . . My fiance sealed me in here."** answered Keria.

**"Your fiance? But why? That's horrible!"** yelled Flora.

**"He did it to protect me."** answered Keria. Hearing that causes Flora to calm herself. She decides to sit back and listen to the rest of her story before she jumps to anymore conclusions.

Keria then continues her story, **"I don't know how long I've been down here, but I do know that it feels like an eternity. You see, I'm a princess to a nearby kingdom. I can only assume that it no longer exists anymore, but my father the king was a kind ruler.  
Father loved peace more than anything, but a far away kingdom who loved war came to my castle to try to take it over. My father tried his best to negotiate a peace treaty. The other kingdom was willing to make peace with mine, but under the condition that I marry their king. But the problem was that I was already engaged to my Fiance Richard, the head knight of the army in our castle.  
My father allowed me to decide if I wanted to marry Richard, or the king to our rival kingdom. I chose to stay with Richard, so my father declared war against the other country. So that I wouldn't be harmed in the war, my father ordered 300 miners to dig 255 floors below the earth. I was placed here, and our wizard sealed the entrance to my room where I would wait for the war to be over. My fiance's sword was enchanted so that only he could undo the spell on my room, and come to get me."**

**"How are you still so young after all this time?"** asked Flora.

**"The wizard casted another spell on me so that I would become immortal. As long as I remain here, I cannot age or die."** answered Keria.

Flora feels sad for Keria. All this time, she has been waiting for no reason. She cannot even imaging how it must feel to be able to live for centuries in a dark room in the bottom of a mine shaft. So she grabs the sword she brought along and places it on Keria's lap. She then asked, **"This sword. . . It used to belong to your fiance Richard. Am I correct?"**

She touched the blade, and noticed the engraving. Even after all these years, she still remembers the words engraved by the wizard so long ago. Staring at it for a while causes tears to drop on the blade. **"Where did you find it?"** Keria asked Flora.

**"We found it buried in the top floor outside the mines."** Flora answered sadly.

**"I see."** responded Keria. She continues to caress the blade of the sword remembering the romantic times she spent with her fiance. **"I can almost see it. He must have came for me, but he was gravely wounded in battle. I'm sure that he must have buried the sword so that someone would release me eventually."**

At that moment, Keria begins to cry for the loss of her dear fiance. All that time she has been down in the bottom of the mines, she was not sure what had happened. She didn't know whether he has died or just ran away with someone else. But now she knows the truth after centuries of being alone.

**"This is all my fault. If only I had married the king, maybe he wouldn't have died such a tragic death. So many people must have died over my happiness. I'm so sorry, I wish I could just take it all back."**

"That's not true!" said Hiro in a stern voice. **"This is NOT your fault, you only did what was best! Your lover came back for you, it's sad that he never made it, but he did come back! That only means that your father won the war, and the evil king was laid to rest! If you would have married him, his tyranny would have just continued, and your children would become evil rulers as well. It's sad that your people were sacrificed by the war, but I'm sure that they all died for a noble cause, for peace! But it's over now, everything is peaceful outside. This mine is surrounded by a beautiful peaceful valley, and it's because of you that the valley is so peaceful. So, just don't blame yourself, okay?"**

Keria believes his words. Hearing them makes her feel so much better. So she smiles and wipes her tears away while saying, **"Thank you Hiro. You know, you remind me so much of Richard."**

"I do?" asked Hiro surprised about what she said. **"How so?"**

"You look a lot like him. And when I was sad, he used to know the exact words to make me feel better. So, I thank you." Those words, and the smile that she gave Hiro makes him feel embarrassed.

He then scratches his head and says, **"Well, I guess that we should be getting out of here. We got what we came for, and I guess you're sick and tired of staying in this dark room. So, lets get out of here already."**

Keria nods. All three of them walk out of the room back into the mine shaft where they would start their ascend up to the surface. Just before they reach the ladder going up, Hiro asks, **"So Keria, now that you're free, what are you planning to do?"**

There is no answer coming from behind. Hiro and Flora looked back to see why is Keria so quiet. But they don't find her, just her robes dropped on the floor. They look around the room, but they cannot find her.

Flora picks up her robes, and within a few moments, she realized what had happened. **"She only lived forever because she was in the room. Now that she left the room, she can now rest in peace."**

They are saddened to find out that Keria will not have the chance to see the peace she had protected in exchange for imprisonment. But they know that she must be in a better place now. They only can hope that she can finally be reunited with the people she cares about the most, and hopefully her fiance.

They take her robes up to the surface, and report to Carter what they learned. They also tell him what they found down there, and Keria's entire story. Carter is too ecstatic to learn the entire story of a girl who was trapped in the bottom of the mines, and the peace she kept for her sacrifice. Flora and Hiro feel pretty upset that he is taking it so lightly without even the least bit of sadness for Keria's misfortune.

Since the mines are now fully explored, and Keria's story is discovered, Carter is now making his report to be sent to his university. They will be leaving soon, and Hiro will need to make his final decision on what he wants to do. That night before he went to sleep, Flora pays him a visit in his tent like she usually does.

They sit quietly for a moment. They both know that this is the moment where Hiro must choose. Will he go with Flora and Carter, or go find another place to call home.

Hiro takes a deep breath and says, **"Flora, I really enjoyed our time together. I really like it here in the valley, but I decided to leave. But I also decided not to go with-"**

Flora places a finger on his lips to silence him. She knows what he is going to tell her, but she refuses to accept his answer. Instead, she made a new decision. She moves closer to him, and whispers in his ear, **"Hiro, lets run away together. . ."**

Hiro suddenly jumps back shocked by Flora's words. At that moment, he has no idea how to respond. The only thing he could say is, **"What did you say? Run away? But what about Carter and your job?"**

**"I don't care about Carter anymore. I just want to be with you from now on. We have so much in common, and we get along very well. I guess what I'm trying to tell you is. . . I love you Hiro."**

He can hardly believe that she had just confessed to him so suddenly. Hiro thinks that the events that occurred in the mines must have moved her enough to make such a bold move. Rather than say anything that he will regret, he plunges forward and kisses her returning her feelings.

That night, they decide to leave forget-Me-Not Valley in the morning. So they packed just enough things to leave quickly and quietly without Carter noticing. Hiro did ask Flora where she wants to go, but she wants to surprise him. So that morning, Flora and Hiro runs off to the pier to catch a boat.

The boat takes off, and sails off to an island in the middle of the ocean. The island is called Sunflower Island, discovered by a young farmer called Mark. Now the island is populated with about 100 people, many of them are farmers. The reason Flora wanted to go there was because there is a mine cave that was discovered by a Millionaire named Regis, and his daughter Sabrina.

Flora plans to buy a house in the island where they can work in the mines together. But for now, they decide to stay in the inn and work from there. In the Inn, they meet up with Mark and his wife Chelsea. They stop to have an interesting conversation about farming and mining. After a while, it was getting late, and Hiro had some plans that he wants complete.

So he takes Flora's hand and says, **"Come on Flora, lets go to our room. I would like us to ****_'discuss'_**** our relationship in more detail."**

Flora giggles and says, **"Wow you're so bold all of the sudden! Okay, let us****_'discuss'_**** our relationship then."** Then they go up to their room where they could "discuss" their relationship like Hiro asked.

Time passed, Hiro and Flora are now living together as husband and wife. They already have a house built with a small farm in the back. Hiro mostly works in the mines digging around for stuff to sell and support his family. Flora mostly stays home, and takes care of their son. Without realizing it, Hiro had found the home like he always wanted.

The end.

Credits:

This Fanfic is based off the Harvest Moon: DS and Harvest Moon: Save The Homeland. Juxapose4ever or Harvestmoon4ever does not assume ownership of copywritten materials or names belonging to Marvelous Interactive Marucome or Natume.

This entire Fanfic was Written by Juxapose4ever for fans of Harvest Moon, or other people who just love to read. Thanks for reading.


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